Charles Manson, White Supremacist (essay)

In these times it is worth remembering that Charles Manson was a White Supremacist. Manson died within the past few days, aged 83, with some 60 of those years spent in jail or prison (both before and after he achieved notoriety). Despite his impoverished beginnings and childhood abuse (which apparently equipped him with a high level of manipulativeness), he was certain that the whiteness of his skin made him superior to people of other origins. The murder spree he masterminded was premised on the idea that killing a bunch of rich White folks and making it appear as if Black people had done the deed would spark a race war -- in which civilization itself would have its downfall, and his "family" -- an intentionally thoroughly all-White group -- would emerge from the ashes of this calamity in some sort of position of rulership. Mind you, this "inevitable race war" notion is old hat to White Supremacists, who have predicted its imminent occurrence with the kind of regularity normally seen in apocalyptic cults predicting the immanent end of the world (and pushing it up a few more years whenever it doesn't materialize by the last predicted date).

I am reminded of a recent news story about a White man robbing a bank while wearing blackface, attempting not only to disguise his identity, but to impugn an entire other race while enriching himself through violence. It didn't work, by the way. The fool was identified and caught, despite his efforts. But it does make one wonder, how much of the crime blamed by racists on minorities is actually carried out by the same racists more successfully framing the reviled group? How many strings at the top of such activity have been pulled to paint a false picture meant to justify the very stereotypes used to press racist views?

Some interesting additional tidbits -- Manson was a bastard child, and it was rumored (to his great agitation) that his biological father was Black (or half-Black), though this has never been anything more than apocryphal. And, oh yeah, Manson carved a fucking Swastika into his own forehead in the midst of his trial for his crimes. It remains to be seen whether or how Manson will be eulogized by the modern-day White Supremacist groups whose work he was a grandfather (if not a great-grandfather) of.